Jedi Academy

Sitting in a meditative position she wondered which of the instructors would be coming to talk to her. It would probably be about the lightsaber forms. Or maybe the Sith? As long as it wasn't about politics. Actually, now that the test was over, she didn't mind too much what it was about.

Zizzy drew the lottery and got... one blue person!

Farissa stepped confidently into the room, though with a closer feel of the tendrils she did seem a little bit tired. Probably been burning the midnight oil.

"Ah, Zizzy," she gave an easy smile and sat down. "Lots of interesting answers you had. Even the old Jedi code - very nice."

"Knight Farissa! Thank you, hi. Well, Lore is my specialty. I was annoyed with myself about the forms - I'd been reading up on them too." She gave the Knight a sheepish smile.

"How are you today?" It didn't seem all that long since they'd been sort of working together to locate Reg. To be honest she was keen to get back to that, but had done a good job of clearing her mind for the test.

"I'm fine, thank you. Just lots of work to do," she gave the Mikkian girl a reassuring nod. "Shall we get to it?"

She folded her hands on her lap and nodded. "Of course. What subject would you like for us to debate?" Zizzy cleared her head and did her best to be open to whatever the Pantoran wanted to discuss.

"Let's look at one of your answers." She cleared her throat.

"Would you say that the old Jedi code is better than the current one?"

Zizzy smiled at the devilish cleverness of the question. "No, Knight Farissa. I would not say that. I don't think an assignment of relative worth is appropriate, or particularly meaningful in this case."

"Why not?" the Knight asked with interest, as she wanted to see where Zizzy would go with this direction. "Should not our code and creed give a clear sense of purpose and direction?"

Her tendrils stirred, swirling gently. "Yes, but do you believe it should be permanent and unchanging? If the Jedi order truly felt that to be true then we would still be using the original, wouldn't we? The present version of the code is informed by the past. That does not make it better, necessarily, just that it works well for us at the present time."

Her eyes had taken on a sparkling intensity, like gemstones in hot metal. "The original code worked well for the original Jedi. It gave them a clear sense of purpose and direction. They became us. We come from them. One day in the future, thousands of years from now, there will be other Jedi looking back on our time. If their code has changed too, would that make it better than ours?"

Farissa leaned back in her seat. "Clever girl." An amused smile formed on her purple lips.

"I do not think too much about the future - and I'm sure the masters would make certain to tell us that the future is always in motion and we should focus on the here and now. But yes, you're right that we can act out of information based on the past. What would you then think of Jedi who believe the old code to be better?"

"I would think that they had their reasons, and I would be interested to hear them." She smiled as if finished, but continued. "The old code informs the new. Perhaps some Jedi find the old words more comfortable. But again, I would say that I do not think they are better, they just are. It's okay to disagree with our fellow Jedi, we aren't infallible."

"Just because something is more comfortable does not make it better, or right, though," she retorted with a lopsided smile of her own, "some would even say that choosing comfort would be to choose the easy way out. Would you say that too is acceptable for the fallible Jedi?"

"So we are agreed that one verson or the other is not 'better' then. Is it 'right'? That is a different question." Zizzy tapped her chin and nodded as she thought more about the new direction of the conversation.

"I think that choosing comfort can be an easy way out, yes. But some always choose to take a harder path than is necessary, and this can also be viewed as an easy way out. It is important to consider why comfort or hardship is chosen. How does either one lead to helping others? I think that to do what is right the fallible Jedi has to make decisions based on the available evidence and the will of the force, not whether it is easy or hard."

Farissa nodded, impressed with how the young Mikkian seemed to have such a firm mindset and ready answers. "And what about yourself? Do you choose comfort or hardship?"